Refined Boundary Matching Algorithm for Temporal Error Concealment

In this paper, an adaptive technique is presented for temporal error concealment based on the boundary matching algorithm. Existing approaches usually estimate only one motion vector for a damaged macroblock by minimizing the boundary difference. This may generate edge fragmentation, object deformation, and other noticeable artifacts, especially in damaged areas involving non-homogeneous motion. We propose a framework of using various motion vectors for different regions within a damaged macroblock. The damaged macroblock is divided into small blocks, and each of the blocks is then concealed with an estimated motion vector. The estimation of motion vectors is independent, but imposed with a set of constraints in order to make it robust for concealment in different areas. The advantage of the new algorithm has been shown by simulations.